Fiore DeRosa

Co-Director/Co-Producer

Fiore DeRosa, co-director and a producer of “The Vanishing City,” is a long time lower Manhattan resident and an award winning film and theater director. His film “Distraction”, which he wrote, directed and produced won third prize in the Zoie Film Festival. His recent film, “Rat Kings,” based on the best selling novel by Robert Sullivan is in production. Fiore was the Founder and Executive Director of The Abraxxas Theater in New York City, and previously the Managing Director of Hunger Theater of Philadelphia. With Hunger Theater, his production of “American Buffalo” won The Golden Cockerel Award for best play in the 2000 Edinburgh film festival.
top

Jen Senko

Co-Director/Co-Producer

Jen Senko is a long-time Soho resident. Senko’s first documentary, “Road Map Warrior Women”, won recognition with several festival awards. Subsequently, Jen was a guest on the panel for the “Women Who Rock” symposium sponsored by CineWomen. She started her LLC, JSenko Productions, in order to produce a number of independent films. Over the past fifteen years she’s been involved in writing, directing, producing, casting and shooting. She’s finished writing a screenplay with the working title “Christmas with Walter?” and is currently working on a documentary called “The Brainwashing of My Dad” with Fiore.
top

Kathryn Erbe

Narrator

Has starred for eight seasons on “Law & Order Criminal Intent” as Detective Alex Eames. Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Erbe is a veteran of both film and television and has been a working actress since she graduated from New York University in 1989. Most recently, she appeared in the feature film “Three Backyards” alongside Edie Falco and Elias Koteas.
Erbe also gained notice in the 1999 box office hit “Stir of Echoes” opposite Kevin Bacon and “Dream with the Fishes” (1997) with David Arquette. Her additional film credits include “Entropy”, “Kiss of Death”, “Mighty Ducks 2”, “Rich in Love” and “What about Bob?”
Her other television credits include playing the infamous death row inmate Shirley Bellenger on the acclaimed HBO series “Oz”. She also appeared on NBC’s “Homocide: Life on the Street,” the miniseries “George Wallace”, Showtime’s original production of “Naked City: Justice with a Bullet”, NBC’s “Another World”, and the television movie “Breathing Lessons”.
Before appearing in feature films, Erbe began her career on the stage. She is a member of both the Steppenwolf Theater Company and the Atlantic Theater Company and has starred in many of their productions. She earned a Tony award nomination in 1991 for her portrayal of Mary in “Speed of Darkness”.
Erbe currently resides in New york with her two children.
top

Erika Hampson

Executive Producer

Erika Hampson began producing films in 2005, with the debut of the short film "Five Minutes, Mr. Welles" starring and directed by Vincent D'Onofrio. Since then, she has gone on to produce several other projects, including the feature film "Don't Go In The Woods" (2008) and "Ipso Facto (2008)," a short film which debuted at the Backseat Film Festival in 2009. One of Erika's recent projects was the Oscar winning short film "The New Tenants," directed by Joachim Back, in association with Park Pictures. The film "Robot and Frank" which she co-produced, is getting a nationwide release this month. She just finished co-producing "The Untitled Christian Camargo Project" and the film "Mall" by her friend, Eric Bogosian which Erika also co-produced, was shot this past Spring.
top

Heather Quist

Co-Producer

Heather is another long-time resident of New York City, and is very familiar with the politics, business and economics of the city. Her film career includes several independent productions, most especially as Production Manager and Script Editor for “Downsizing of the Gods” (a short satire about disruption and change in a New York business) and as Associate Producer for a JSenko Productions film in production. She has a B.S. in Communications from Syracuse University with a Concentration in Urban Politics.top

Chris Iversen

Editor

Chris Iversen is a Brooklyn resident who has been working in social and political documentaries films for years. After earning a film degree at San Francisco State University, he went from directing bay area punk rock music videos, to becoming a working documentary film editor in New York City. After becoming a teaching assistant at The Edit Center in midtown Manhattan, and working at Troma Entertainment's infamous Hell's Kitchen office, he has worked in post production on a wide range of social and political documentaries.
top

Jason Knobloch

Director of Photography

Jason Knobloch’s photography career is the result of a life long interest in lighting and the cinematic visuals. Jason grew up in Westchester, NY, where he spent much time both studying and capturing dramatic natural light. Concentrating mostly on nature turned out to be a true teacher in both beautifully simplistic lighting with many complicated accents. Jason is an alumni of both the Hallmark Institute of Photography and the Art Institute of Philadelphia, holding specializations in portrait photography and commercial special effects.

Matt Diamond

Composer

Matt studied electronic music composition at the Peabody Conservatory, where he won several awards for his work, including First Place in the 2008 Peabody Prix d'Été, as well as the Otto Ortmann Award for Composition. While at the Peabody, he collaborated with a team of composers to create ambient music for an exhibit at the Walters Art Gallery. He has also composed original music for commercial use by National Geographic and the Weather Channel, and has written scores for two documentaries: "Snake Hill" (for which Matt received a Garden State Film Festival music award) and "The BlueBelles." www.mattdiamondmusic.comtop

Christopher Bram

Contributing Writer

Christopher is the author of nine novels, including “Gods and Monsters”, which became an Oscar-winning movie starring Ian McKellan and Lynn Redgrave. A 2001 Guggenheim Fellow, Bram has been the writer-in-residence at both Vassar and William and Mary. He is a widely-published book and film reviewer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Premiere, New York Newsday and James White Review. Bram has also collaborated on several feature screenplays with Draper Shreve, including a film about Tallulah Bankhead currently being developed for actress Patricia Clarkson.top

Draper Shreeve

Associate Editor

Draper has produced, directed and edited four narrative shorts and one
documentary. “Kids of Penzance”, broadcast on the Documentary Channel, follows a
group of New York City students and their teachers against the backdrop of a
production of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, “The Pirates of Penzance”. The
film was sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts. “Dangerous Music”,
featuring Tony-nominated Kathleen Chalfant of “Wit” and “Angels in America”, won
the Bronze Award at the Houston International Film Festival and was included in
the New American Short Film series at the American Film Institute. He
studied design and filmmaking at Pratt Institute and New York University.
www.drapershreeve.comtop

Abe Schrager

Cinematography Consultant

The late Abe Schrager brought extensive cinematic and photographic experience to the project, from the Beatles to the Oscar-winning films “Dead Man Walking” and “The Hours.” Most especially, his years of shooting in New York City for “Law & Order” and “Sex and the City” provided the crew of “Vanishing New York” with a wealth of information and techniques for working in the city. We thank him for his friendship and guidance.